Honda backing away from 6 million a year car sales goal: CEO

13/02/2015 - 16:58

ASAHIKAWA, Japan (Reuters) - Honda Motor Co is backing away from its goal of selling 6 million cars a year by March 2017 to allow enough time for development, its chief executive said, conceding that recent quality woes may have had something to do with the lofty target.

"There is definitely a sense that there was a tremendous burden on the development team," CEO Takanobu Ito told a small group of reporters on Friday ahead of a test-driving event in northern Japan. "In a way, we have shelved the 6 million-car sales target," he said.

(Reporting by Maki Shiraki; Writing by Chang-Ran Kim; Editing by Pravin Char)